Pakistan in 1995

A federal republic and member of the Commonwealth, Pakistan is in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, on the Arabian Sea. Area: 796,095 sq km (307,374 sq mi), excluding the 83,716-sq km Pakistani-controlled section of Jammu and Kashmir. Pop. (1995 est., including 1.6 million Afghan refugees and 4 million residents of Pakistani-controlled Jammu and Kashmir): 140,497,000. Cap.: Islamabad. Monetary unit: Pakistan rupee, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of PRs 31.59 to U.S. $1 (PRs 49.94 = £1 sterling). President in 1995, Farooq Ahmed Leghari; prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.

For much of 1995, the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto remained under siege as ethnic violence in Karachi escalated and sectarian violence nationwide took its toll. It was the bloodiest year in Pakistan’s history since the 1971 separation of the country’s eastern province, which became Bangladesh. (SeeSPOTLIGHT: Secularism in South Asia.)

The main battleground was Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and the capital of southern Sindh province. Bhutto’s nemesis was the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), the national movement for Mohajir people (Muslim immigrants from India who fled to Pakistan after the 1947 partition and their descendants), which represented nearly two-thirds of the city’s people. MQM, which had won every election it had contested in Karachi since 1986, was lobbying for greater autonomy for Karachi and more say in running Sindh province than native Sindhis have. That was unacceptable to Bhutto, herself a native Sindhi. Violence in Karachi alone left over 2,500 people dead by late October--more than 150 of whom were police officers or members of the security forces. Several hundred others died in clashes in other Sindh cities, as well as in sectarian clashes in Punjab.

Government security forces battled for much of the year with heavily armed militia supporting the MQM. Even within the nine million-strong Mohajir community in Sindh province, MQM extremists fought pitched battles with the moderate Haqiqi faction. In July Bhutto, under pressure from army commanders, began peace talks with the MQM. The talks foundered, then restarted, only to reach another deadlock. At year’s end the two sides were still hurling accusations at each other, but they were still talking. On November 19, 15 people died in a suicide car-bombing attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad; the militant Islamic Group and two other groups that opposed the Egyptian government claimed responsibility.

Despite the violence in Karachi, sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim sects, and attacks by religious fanatics on minority Christians and Ahmedis, Bhutto continued to enjoy the backing of Gen. Abdul Waheed Kakar, the chief of army staff. In October the government foiled an attempted coup by a group of senior Islamic fundamentalist military officials. One general, several brigadiers, and other senior officials were among the 36 military men arrested, and scores of other top military officials were questioned. The arrested officers were reportedly disgusted at Waheed Kakar’s backing of Bhutto.

In April Bhutto visited Washington, D.C., where she passionately argued for lifting the embargo on military and economic aid to Pakistan, which was imposed in 1990 owing to U.S. concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear program. A cornerstone of the trip was the issue of the sale of 28 U.S. F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan. Islamabad had paid $1.4 billion for the planes and other military hardware and for four years had lobbied for either the delivery of the planes or return of the money. In late October the U.S. Congress voted to restore partial military and economic aid, supply some military hardware, and refund the money by selling the jets to a third country. One reason for Washington’s dramatic turnaround just three years after branding Pakistan a terrorist state was Islamabad’s cooperation in the capture and extradition of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, an Arab terrorist accused of having masterminded the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993.

In September the Bhutto government reluctantly hammered out a deal with the International Monetary Fund, just three months after the IMF had canceled a $300 million loan--part of a $1.5 billion economic stabilization package--because Islamabad had failed to keep its promise to liberalize the economy by implementing structural reforms. Pakistan’s economy continued to improve, despite work stoppages and strikes in Karachi that repeatedly paralyzed the port. The healthy growth was primarily due to a bumper cotton crop of 13 million bales--a record high in spite of serious floods. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.5% in the fiscal year ended June 1995, and a bigger cotton crop was likely to boost production of textiles and garments in the second half of 1995. The strikes and work stoppages in Karachi shaved off an estimated 0.5% of GDP growth.

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